Home for Halloween

We are home.

Somewhere between the disorganization and chaos of our lives these last few months, this place became our home. I didn't fully realize it until tonight.

Tonight, we walked our neighborhood to go trick-or-treat at a handful of houses with Nora, my brothers, their wives, and our nephew. I looked all around me to see kids running through yards, walking up and down driveways, ringing doorbells and collecting candy with calls of "trick or treat!" and polite "thank yous." Houses lit up, doors open, porches illuminated by jack-o-lanterns. It was the kind of neighborhood perfection that you see in the movies.

It honestly gave me the warm and fuzzies.

At one point, as I surveyed the scene around me, I turned to Michael and said, "Wow. This is awesome. I love this." This is exactly what I've always wanted, and what I've wanted to give to Nora.

It was a good night. Happy Halloween!

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Halloween Eve

Another trip to a pumpkin patch (we really got pumpkins this time), plus a family dinner/pumpkin carving party at my mom's = Halloween Eve. We also put the kids in their costumes so my mom could see them (she's out of town tomorrow), but those pics will have to wait! :)

It was a beautiful fall day, and we certainly made the most of it. <3

 

We're excited for tomorrow night, because we'll actually have trick-or-treaters! In our condo, we never had them. My brothers and sisters-in-law and nephew are coming over for frozen pizzas, to hang out, and to take the kids to a few neighbors' houses. 

What is your favorite part about Halloween?

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Friends Forever

Eleven (holy crap) years ago, I was living it up during my first semester as a college freshman at a state college. I was having the time of my life. So much so, that I actually cried when I went home for Thanksgiving break. Dude... it was ONLY A WEEK. (Don't even ask how much I cried when I had to go home for that first summer vacation, ha!) But I loved my life at school so much that I wanted to stay there 24/7/365.

Luckily for me, during the very first month, I had already met the girls who would become my core group of friends--and they remain so to this very day. I don't remember how we all met, but several of the girls were pairs of freshman roommates. (Oh, and two are twin sisters--they've obviously know each other much longer than the rest of us.) Somehow, we all clicked and stuck together through the four years at school, and the seven years that have followed.

Sure, there were times with drama. Lots of drama. (We were girls, after all. Girls who lived together.) In fact, during those four years, we saw two girls exit our group. A new girl was brought into the fold (and remains!). Another faded away after we graduated, since she was the only one who moved far away from home. But seven years after leaving our quaint college town and crossing over into adulthood, our core group of seven is still here. Through I don't even know how many break-ups. Six engagements. Five weddings. Countless new houses/apartments. One stalker (I wish I was kidding). Three pregnancies. And now, three babies.

We don't see each other as often as we'd like, because trying to coordinate seven busy schedules? Tough stuff. But when we do, it's like we're back sitting on the floor of one of our dorm rooms. Together again. Except now, there are little rug rats who join us--which is still kind of hard for us to grasp when we're together.

Seriously, we're old enough to have kids?? :)

Beware of 2012, because... we're all turning THIRTY. And I'm sure we'll all celebrate that, too.

How do you keep in touch with your friends from college, despite busy lives? How often do you plan group gatherings? What do you do when you get together? Do you find that things are just like old times, or have things changed dramatically?

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All Ears. Again.

My little one is under the weather.

On Monday night, Nora woke up at 2:00 a.m. and was up for two hours--something that is very unusual for her. She didn't seem sick at all, so we chalked it up to possible teething and went on with our day as normal (albeit a little extra tired).

But when I picked her up from daycare yesterday, she seemed a little out of it. She looked tired. Her eyes had that glazed-over, "sick look." Our daycare provider said that she seemed quiet and not as active as usual. I thought she felt a little warm. Still, I took her home and Michael and I plopped her in her high chair to give her some dinner.

For the past week or so, Nora has been a rockstar when it comes to eating. It must've been the fact that I blogged about her food habits; she wanted to prove me wrong! She suddenly took to eating everything we put in front of her, so we've taken advantage by offering her a huge variety of new foods in the hopes that when she goes through another "picky stage," we'll have a bigger arsenal of familiar foods to pull from.

So anyway, we got her home last night and tried to feed her and... she wouldn't eat anything. We knew something was up right away, since the things we were trying to serve her were some of her favorites. Macaroni and cheese! She wouldn't touch it. We ended up getting her to eat a little bit of a dinner roll, but that was it. We called it quits on dinner, and I took her upstairs to get her ready for bed, even though it was early.

I discovered she did have a fever--101.6 by her ear thermometer. Not crazy high or anything, but a fever nonetheless. I gave her a bath, and she proceeded to freak me out a little bit by having chills when I was getting her pajamas on. Poor kid.

She promptly passed out, and we prepared ourselves to have another bad night. To our surprise, she slept quite well. We heard a couple of coughing fits throughout the night, and a few short little cries, but she always settled right back down.

This morning, she still looked terrible, and she once again had a 101+ degree fever, so we made her a doctor's appointment.

It turns out the poor kid has a double ear infection. AGAIN. Or, still. We're not sure whether it's a new infection, or if the one she had (diagnosed on 10/10) just never went away, even after a 10-day course of antibiotics. We stopped by the pharmacy to get her a new, stronger antibiotic, and I took her home and put her down for a nap. Michael came home from work to take the afternoon shift so I could go into work to attend meetings and get some things done. (Hooray, full-time working parents!)

THE KID TOOK A 4-HOUR NAP. If that right there is not a sign of her illness, I don't know what is.

By the time I got home, she was still looking pretty sick, but she was in good spirits.

Another fever tonight, so I don't know what to do about daycare tomorrow. Our provider doesn't really have any set rules, just expects everyone to use their best judgement. Ear infections aren't contagious, but she has the start of a cold now, too. Today, her pediatrician said she didn't think it was a good idea for her to return to daycare while she has the fever, so... I don't know. *sigh*

The biggest development in all of this is that our pediatrician started talking TUBES. Nora has had a few ear infections, but I guess I didn't realize that it was anything abnormal until today. By our count, she's had 3-4 that we've treated since last Christmas, when she got her first one at three months old. Plus, there was an additional one that we detected at her 12-month well-baby appointment that we decided not to treat because she was showing absolutely no symptoms of it, and it didn't seem to be bothering her.

The pediatrician essentially said that if she can get away with having just one more ear infection between now and March, we'd be good. However, if she gets two within that timeframe, she wants to order the surgery to have tubes placed in her ears.

Blahhhhh. Not what I wanted to hear. I know it's a minor, common, outpatient procedure that takes like five minutes, but no one wants to put their baby under anesthesia, you know? Anyway, I'm not going to really spend time worrying about it until its actually upon us, but honestly, based on her history, I just don't see us getting to March with only one more ear infection.

I'm curious... Does your child have tubes in his/her ears? How old was he/she when they were inserted? What was the rationale for the decision? How many ear infections had he/she been diagnosed with before the tubes? Did the tubes prevent any further ear infections? Were they/will they be removed at a certain age? 

Even though tubes are just a possibility at this point, we do need to think ahead a bit because we are approaching open enrollment for health insurance with our employers. Right now, we have Michael and Nora on a high-deductible insurance plan through his job, and me on my own separate plan, as that was the most cost-effective solution for us. With Michael and Nora's plan, we've been taking the extra money that we would be spending on premiums and putting it in a health savings account. We have a nice chunk of money in there after only 10 months of paying into it, but we're not sure it's enough to cover the surgery, since we still have a deductible/co-insurance we'd have to pay.

So, that begs the question... if we think it's a good possibility that she'll need this surgery, should we consider switching to a traditional health plan for 2012? The premiums are much higher, but the surgery would likely be fully covered. We have to wait to get the 2012 insurance offerings from our employers, then try to get an estimate for what the surgery would cost, and go from there. It's definitely hard to figure out life insurance, but health insurance is a beast, too!

In the meantime, here's hoping Miss Nora gets back to her old self soon... and that maybe, just maybe, her vulnerability for ear infections will disappear! (See that there? That's optimism!)

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The Jug

As it turned out, it was pretty easy for a lot of you to figure out the object in the mystery photo. It seems that far more of you actually have experience with this than I thought!

If you guessed that it was a 24-hour urine collection container, give yourself a pat on the back.

Oh, and before I go any further, I feel the need to clarify: NO, I AM NOT PREGNANT AGAIN. That's how rumors get started, y'all. Sheesh. ;)

With all of that said, let's get back to the pee container and why I have one. The truth is: You haven't lived until you've collected 24 hours worth of pee in a jug. I'm just sayin'.

In all seriousness, this is related to life insurance. I posted a few weeks ago about my beef with life insurance. That was when I was fairly certain that life was all hunky-dory and I knew only that I was a perfectly healthy 29-year-old woman who was bound to be granted the "preferred" status with lower premiums. And I'll have you know that the hesitation I expressed in that post about paying for life insurance was actually based on those preferred, lower premiums.

I was so cute back then. In all of my freaking out over $25/month. Ha. Hahaha. Bwahahahahaha.

Imagine my shock when, yesterday morning, I talked to our insurance agent, who informed me that I had been approved for life insurance, but--and this was a big BUT--there was a problem with my lab work. The underwriters had awarded me a status of sub-standard.

Not "super preferred" (they probably only hand that out to robots).
Not "preferred" (like my healthy husband).
Not "standard" (you know, like maybe you have a couple of health issues).

SUB-STANDARD. Just one step above being rejected for life insurance altogether. That classification comes with a $55/month price tag. And the kicker? He couldn't tell me why.

COMMENCE FREAK-OUT BECAUSE SURELY THERE IS SOMETHING TERRIBLY WRONG WITH ME, AND YOU WANT ME TO PAY HOW MUCH??

Understandably, my insurance agent was not privy to my lab results/medical history/records (thank goodness!), but he was telling me about how I'd have to wait until the (sealed) records came in the mail for him, and then he'd have to put them in the mail for me. Come on, what are we talking about there, a week? NOT ACCEPTABLE.

Instead, I insisted on getting the number for the underwriter so I could call and speak to her directly. Which I did. And she informed me that my urinalysis results came back showing that I had elevated levels of protein in my urine. And went on to say (in a perfectly chipper voice, I might add) that elevated protein in urine is indicative of kidney failure, diabetes, hypertension, and connective tissue disorders. Because I wasn't freaking out enough already.

I hung up the phone and immediately called my doctor's office to get in for an appointment to see them. I had the insurance company fax me the complete lab results, and took them with me. After taking one look at the numbers, she said to me, "Well, your kidney function is beautiful. And you're not a diabetic." (And, let me also note that the stupid life insurance exam requires a blood pressure reading, which was 108/68, so I most certainly DO NOT HAVE HYPERTENSION, either.) She went on to explain that life insurance companies are going to do everything they can to knock you down into paying their higher premiums--which makes perfect sense, of course, but is still ridiculous to me. She suspects that my elevated protein level was just an anomaly, caused by something innocuous, but to be safe and help dispel the beliefs of the insurance company, she ordered a 24-hour collection, since it's the most accurate way to measure protein levels in urine.

Aren't you happy you stopped over to my blog today? You can't say I'm not educational. :)

The good news is that the doctor is optimistic that I'm fine, and said that if the results come back normal, she will send a nasty note to the insurance company telling them their results are crap and to request that they reconsider my classification in light of the more accurate test and normal results.

In the meantime, we have another insurance company sending a nurse over to do exams on Saturday morning--I have my fingers crossed that this one will prove to be less eventful and that I'll get the classification that (I'm pretty sure) I deserve from the get-go. There are lots of reasons for random protein in urine, so hopefully whatever caused mine in the first place has come to pass, and I'll check out OK this time.

Please excuse me while I go pee in a jug jump through hoops for life insurance.

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Mysterious

Before I go all out and tell the whole story behind this photo, I thought perhaps we could have a little fun with it. Anyone want to venture a guess at what this is, and what it's for?

The only hint I'll give is that it's related to a recent post. One that I wrote in October.

It's possible that this is too easy. But eh, let's see what you've got. :)

Oh, and if I've already talked to you about this, you're not allowed to guess! For the rest of you... give it your best shot. :)

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Toilets and Yardwork and Floors... Oh My!

When we moved, I knew that more than doubling our living space was going to be mostly a positive experience. However, there are a few negatives that have come to light in the two months we've been living here.

Like toilets. I have three of them to clean now. Gross.

And floors. Something always needs to be vacuumed or swiffered or mopped.

That damn lawn will not.stop.growing.

We're trying to get into a groove with keeping up with everything, but it's just HARD. Things might be a little extra challenging right now since we're still trying to get on top of all of the home improvement projects on our list, but I know that it's tough, even while living normal, everyday life.

I've seen a number of "cleaning schedules" pop up on Pinterest, and have pinned a bunch, but some of them are ludicrous. Who has AN HOUR every day to clean? Come on, now. There is enough going on with daily chores (dishes, laundry, cooking, dinner clean-up, baby baths and bedtime, etc.) without adding an hour of cleaning to the mix.

So, for those of you who are successful at keeping a clean home... how do you do it? Did you set a schedule for yourself? Do you set aside time every day (I hope it's not an HOUR?) to help keep up? Do you tackle a room at a time, or a task at a time (i.e. one full bathroom at a time, or all toilets, then all floors, etc.)?

I have never been the best homemaker in terms of the cleaning part, but I hope to set some good habits while I can, so this doesn't get out of hand!

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Flashback Friday

Got home from work tonight, had "hodge podge" (a little of everything--various leftovers) for dinner, put Nora to bed, spray-painted an air register cover, painted window trim in the living room, and now... I'm sitting with a glass of wine and looking through pictures. Some old, some new. And it.is.crazy.

October 21, 2010

October 21, 2011

Yep. Crazy.

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Housekeeping Items

Well, now. Look who is able to pretend that they have time for their actual hobbies this week.

[It's ME!]

We finally completed the family room renovations this past weekend (well, MOSTLY completed), so we are taking a little break on house projects. I'm sure we'll be back to painting or something this weekend, so it won't be much of a break, but I'm glad to have a little time off.

Last night, I was suddenly inspired to tackle a little blog makeover. It's nothing fabulous, but at least the header photos aren't nearly a year old anymore. I still have dreams of having a professional redesign the blog for me someday, and I still contemplate making a move to Wordpress on a regular basis, but for now, this little update satisfies my need for change.

One thing that I've been considering doing for a while is creating a Facebook page for the blog. I was holding out for a profession redesign and planned to add Facebook at the same time, but since that's not happening, now's as good a time as any. I've been using Twitter to supplement my blog posts for a few years now, but I know that not everybody is on the Twitter bandwagon, and that far more people prefer Facebook. I'm hoping it'll give me an opportunity to share more (things that might not be worthy of a whole blog post), and interact with you on a more regular basis. So, why not give it a try? Throw me a bone and go ahead and click "like" in that box over there in the sidebar  :)  ----->

Lastly, I finally updated the recipe index. Holy moly, it had been a really long time. I don't know if anyone finds the recipe index useful, but I use it for meal planning all of the time. When I was going through to update it, I realized how many recipes I'd completely forgotten about--I can't wait to add some of them back into our rotation!

As always, if there are suggestions or comments about anything blog related--be it design, content, etc.--be sure to let me know.

Happy Wednesday.

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Picky

Nora has always been an awesome eater.

She did great with breastfeeding. During the pureed food stage, she ate every single kind of puree that we offered her (including sour/bitter cranberries, when mixed with a bit of applesauce!). We thought it was hilarious, because she just took to everything, opening her mouth like a little bird for bite after bite after bite.

Unfortunately, finger foods have proved to be more of a challenge.

I've been a somewhat picky eater all of my life. I'm way better now--I'd maybe call myself "choosy" but not necessarily PICKY. However, I would say I was severely picky as a child. My mom always said that she had been a picky kid, too, and that I was her "mother's revenge" for giving my grandma such a hard time when she was younger. My mom always swore that I would someday pay my dues as well. I thought I had escaped that sentence with Nora, but now, I'm not so sure.

Cake was deemed "a-ok" with her on her birthday

I'm nervous that Nora is developing picky tendencies. But since we're first time parents, it's hard to know what to classify as "normal" toddler eating behavior, and what to classify as "picky." It's my understanding that toddlers are...finicky?...about what they eat. One day, they might love sweet potatoes. The next, they may refuse to even taste them. For those of you with older toddlers/kids--have you found this to be true?

I've also read that babies may have to try new foods anywhere from five to 15 times before they "accept" the new taste. We've taken this (and the advice of our pediatrician) to heart, and we continue to offer her things, even if she's rejected them in the past. Sometimes, we'll get lucky and she'll suddenly start to like something! Other times, she simply rejects it over and over again.

Michael and I have been debating with each other whether pickiness is a nature or a nurture problem. Michael likes pretty much everything, and always has, whereas I (as I already mentioned) am pickier. He believes that it's a matter of nurture--if you're raised to try everything and anything, and essentially forced to eat what you're served (or go without anything), you won't be a picky eater. Based on my own experience, and the stories my mom has told me (about how I would literally gag over the taste of certain vegetables, even as a small baby), I believe there is something to be said for a nature argument.

In all likelihood, aren't we probably both right? I'm thinking it's probably a combination of both.

At her 1-year well-baby visit, our pediatrician basically told us to offer Nora whatever we wanted her to eat, and if she didn't eat it, to put an end to mealtime. She believes that if you set a pattern where you offer something else after your kid refuses to eat something, you'll just be teaching them that they can always get what they want to eat. And I totally back her up on that--I see how that would be true, and have seen such patterns develop with friends' kids. Still, it's difficult to be tough with your 13-month-old daughter who is just starting to try all of these foods, you know? If she doesn't like something, we're really supposed to just cut her off?

Nora's not starving. She eats well during a lot of her meals. But the past week or so, she just seems to be really testing us at dinner. Anything new we give her to try, she takes MAYBE a couple of bites of it, and then launches the rest off of her tray and cries. 

Feeding a toddler is tough.

So... for those of you who have "good eaters"--were they ALWAYS good eaters, gobbling up anything and everything you put in front of them? Or did you have to "develop" the good eating habits over time? Anybody with picky eaters that you managed to (at least somewhat) reform?

The other problem is that I feel like we're feeding Nora a lot of the same things all of the time. Partly because she rejects a lot of new things, but partly because it's hard to come up with ideas. Whenever we do make a good dinner for ourselves (which is not as often as I'd like right now!), we try to feed her what we're having, but a lot of nights, we're feeding her separately from what we end up eating. And for lunches to send to daycare, it's tough to think of easy things to pack. Our pediatrician said that the more you limit their food choices, the more you are encouraging them to be picky, so we want to make sure to break this habit as much as possible.

For the record (and since I'm anticipating that some of you might ask), I'll share a list of foods that Nora does eat. And y'all can tell me if I'm crazy for thinking she might be picky.

Nora eats: cereal w/milk (shredded wheat, corn chex, wheat chex, bran flakes, etc.), pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs, bananas, pears, peaches, pineapple, mandarin oranges, applesauce (and any other fruit puree), plain yogurt, peanut butter sandwich, grilled cheese, cheese (cheddar, monterey jack, american), sweet potatoes, white potato, pizza, pasta w/sauce, ravioli, macaroni and cheese, deli turkey, puffs, hummus sandwiches, apricots, steamed carrots, avocado

Unless I'm forgetting something, these are pretty much all of the foods that make up her diet. While I know it's not TERRIBLE, it is really not all that extensive. Right? I think we're good on carbs/grains, and fruit. Where we're struggling most, I think, is with protein and vegetables. The girl can only eat so many eggs, cheese, and sweet potatoes. We've tried other veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans) and sources of protein (veggie burgers, beans) and she is just not into them--at least not yet.

Any advice? Suggestions for new foods to try to add to the rotation? I've mostly been able to stay patient, knowing this is all part of her development, but I have to admit to getting a little frustrated sometimes. Dinnertime in particular has become a bit of a battle, usually resulting in her crying because the food on her tray is not what she wants. I would love to get back to peaceful eating!

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Pumpkin in the Patch

I don't know how it happened, but Nora is suddenly looking less and less like a baby, and very much like a little girl. She has changed so much in the last few months. As we went into the summer, she was still this petite, semi-squishy baby, and now she is JUST SO GROWN UP. I look at photos from June and July and it almost doesn't even look like the same kid.

:::sobs:::

Maybe it's those two front teeth?

We took a little bit of time on Sunday to visit a pumpkin patch. The weekend was mostly rainy, but the sun was shining bright for a change, so we took advantage in order to get some photos. Check out my big girl at the pumpkin patch:

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Countdown

The countdown is on. This beauty shall be mine:

Unfortunately, it won't be mine today, but on November 15. I have to wait until I'm eligible for an upgrade with Verizon. But, considering how long I've been waiting to ditch my crappy Blackberry and get my hands on an iPhone, one little measley month is not that torturous!

I've had a Blackberry for several years now. I got my first one (a Pearl) in 2008, not long before Michael and I were married. At the time, it was just.so.cool to be able to have internet! and e-mail! on my phone, so I was a happy camper. 

When I was eligible for an upgrade again in March 2010, I went into the store knowing that I wanted to get a Blackberry Tour. The sales guy tried to sell me on a Droid, which at the time were still fairly new and not as commonplace as they are now, so I stood my ground and told the guy to get me my Blackberry!

I regretted that decision shortly after. 

I soon realized the limits of my Blackberry compared to other phones, and when I started voicing those limits out loud, one of the digital guys at work said (and I'm paraphrasing), "Get rid of the Blackberry. You have to get an iPhone or a Droid." *BIG, HUGE SIGH* I've hated this Blackberry all along, and have been not-so-patiently waiting for my next upgrade to come around. At the beginning, it seemed impossibly far away, so knowing that there are only FOUR MORE WEEKS left with this piece of crap  is great. Plus, Apple decided to give me a little present and release the iPhone 4S just as I'm getting ready for my upgrade. Hooray!

Anyone in the same boat as I am, not-so-patiently waiting for the iPhone? Any who prefer Droid? Is there anyone who is actually loyal to Blackberry at this point (seems rare)? 

For all of you who are enjoying your new iPhones today--color me jealous. 

But not far behind.

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Insured

There are things that I don't like to pay for. Well, honestly, is anything really fun to pay for?

I won't lie; I get a certain satisfaction out of knocking off bills every month--but it would make the process infinitely better if, you know, there was an endless supply of money in the ol' bank account. But, like most people, I have resigned to the fact that the very reason we work in the first place is to be able to pay for things, so unless it's an especially "tight" month, I don't find paying bills to be particularly horrible or stressful. Still, there is one particular bill that has been weighing heavily on my mind, and really bothers me.

Life insurance.

Up until last month, the only life insurance policies Michael and I had were through our employers, given to us as part of our benefits packages. We always figured that at least we had some kind of life insurance and left it at that. But once we bought our new house, with more expensive bills, it dawned on me that if something were to happen to one of us, it would be really difficult for the other person to continue to carry the house and its expenses on their own. And, of course, we have Nora, so we have to consider her financial well-being, too.

In August, we were shopping around for homeowner's insurance for our new house, and to keep things easier (and get a discount), we moved our auto insurance over to the new carrier as well. At the time we signed on the dotted line for all of that, the insurance agent (of course) mentioned that we should consider life insurance policies. We were a bit overwhelmed by all of the changes and preparing for the closing on the house, so we said that we would revisit it once we were moved in and (somewhat) settled.

In September, the insurance agent came to our house and discussed our life insurance options with us. We were really unsure of what to expect in terms of cost--but I will say that I was a bit shocked at how pricey life insurance policies are. Even so, we knew it was important to have, so we signed on the dotted lines and put ourselves through the screening process.

But now, I just can't shake the feeling of how much I hate to see that money go out the door every month. I mean, paying for any kind of insurance is no picnic--but at least with health, dental, and car insurance, you actually USE it. Or have a pretty good chance of using it. It's disturbing to know that with life insurance, the only time anyone will ever benefit from it is if one of us dies. How pleasant is THAT to think about?

I question the need for it, honestly. We took out policies that would allow the widowed spouse to pay off the mortgage, and leave some extra money for Nora. We figured that the policies through our employers (which disappear if we leave our jobs, obviously) would be more than enough to cover funeral expenses, and provide a little extra cushion should we actually find ourselves in the worst situation ever. But now I'm thinking, do we really need THAT MUCH insurance? I still maintain that it's smart and responsible to have it, but how much life insurance do we really need? Because seriously, that money that is being deducted from our bank account every month? We could use it for a lot of other things.

I don't want to fall into the "it could never happen to us" trap, because let's face it--at our age, no one expects to lose their lives. It's better to be somewhat prepared for it, right? To protect our little family, and our precious little girl?

What say you, friends? I'm interested in hearing from those with kids AND those without. Do you pay for life insurance? Stick with "free" policies given to you through work? Roll the dice without any at all? What are your reasons for going the route you've chosen? And if you do pay, are there any tricks to turning off that little voice inside that says "this is such a waste of money"?

In retrospect, maybe our mistake in all of this is that we just didn't shop around enough. We figured we'd be getting a good deal through our insurance carrier, but we really don't have anything to compare it to. I find myself wondering if what we're paying is actually a decent rate. Maybe I should put some inquiries out there to see what we could get somewhere else.

And now that I have sufficiently depressed everyone by talking about morbid life events... I apologize. :)

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Two steps forward; One step back

Well, hell. A week gone by without blogging.

It's not coincidental that the last time I blogged was last Monday--that was the day before all hell broke loose. Last Monday, our family room project still looked like it was going to be complete by the weekend. Even after experiencing a setback, we were in good spirits because we had busted our asses all weekend, were back on track, and were moving forward.

Then, Tuesday night, things fell apart and I pretty much had a nervous breakdown.

Long, long story, but essentially, we got primer and both coats of paint on the new ceiling before we realized that things weren't looking quite right. Each joint (the seams) where the pieces of drywall came together was producing what appeared to be shadows when looking up at the ceiling. Needless to say, it kind of looked like shit. Imagine your nice, smooth ceiling (that you have worked SO HARD for), but with shadows criss-crossing their way over it, making each individual piece of drywall stick out like a sore thumb. It wasn't going to fly.

At first, I thought it was an issue with the primer that we used. I was so, so pissed, but thought that the problem could be fixed by starting over with the painting portion--a coat of different primer, plus another two coats of paint. But, after snapping some pics, sharing with our knowledgeable friends and my dad, we were told that it wasn't a primer issue--it was a drywall mud issue. In other words, we had messed up during the mudding/sanding stage.

And at that time, I just really wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Dramatic? Yes. But holy hell, to know that all of the blood, sweat, and tears that had already gone into that room were for nothing was just devastating.

Thankfully, we have great people in our lives, because our friend Pete came to the rescue, spending Thursday and Friday at our house fixing it for us. I am still too scared to proclaim it all a success, but I will say that we've put primer and one coat of paint on the ceiling so far, and things are looking much better. We are working hard to try to get the room painted and ready for the carpet guy to FINALLY come to install the new carpet on Friday so that we might POSSIBLY have a real live FAMILY ROOM this weekend. You know, with a couch to sit on. And carpet for the baby to play on. And a TV with a DVR (hooray!). I don't even remember what it's like to be able to relax on a couch with a glass of wine. I have big plans for reacquainting myself with that, though.

Still, I'm so traumatized by all of the setbacks we've experienced that I'm afraid to get my hopes up. BUT we'll see. If there's anything we've learned been reminded of so far, it's that things just NEVER go as planned. Why is that? It is just so defeating. It makes me never want to take on any home improvement project ever again, which is a shame since we have a houseful of them. Maybe it's kind of like childbirth--I just need some time and distance to "forget" what a pain in the ass it all is before taking on something else. Which is hard when you have a half-finished kitchen project staring you in the face every day.

Baby steps. I'm trying to take baby steps.

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Fun in a Box

As I mentioned in my last post, the weather this past weekend was really crappy. We ventured out for a few errands on Saturday and Sunday, but mostly, we were stuck in the house. At times, it was challenging to keep Nora entertained. Who knew that babies could suffer from cabin fever at such a young age? We're in for a long winter. Ugh.

Yesterday, Michael went to meet a friend who was visiting from out of town. He was only gone for a couple of hours, but it was a good chunk of Mommy-Nora time. She seemed to be getting bored with her toys, so I looked around for something interesting for her to play with. My eyes landed on an empty cardboard box that we had FINALLY unpacked in her room the day before.

In the words of Charlie Sheen: WINNING. The kid spent at least 15 minutes amusing herself with the box. And I amused myself by taking pictures.

And yes, she is wearing her Bills jersey AGAIN. We had a lucky streak going there. Unfortunately, that's now over. Can't say she won't still be sporting it every Sunday, though. It's awfully cute. :)

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